As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Love all the photos....makes me "homesick" a bit! . I think once people realize how Paris is organized spiraling out from the center, it is a pretty easy city to get around....so long as the metro isn't on strike! (At least they announce their planned strikes so people can attempt to plan accordingly)
Ah, but strikes are so much a part of French life...
Nice update and glad you made it into Paris without any problems!
Good that you got your Metro tix before arriving into Paris with the lines at the machines! Although, those particular ones may may been for standard train travel (RER) and not for the Metro! When, I arrived at CDG airport back in May and had to get a train ticket into Paris in my morning arrival, I opted to go to the ticket office, where they were so helpful and got you what you wanted, instead of using a menu driven system and being not familiar with it and suffering from severe jet lag! I made the right choice!
I can imagine you did. I've been to both the ticket office and used the machines and I found the machines easier to use, but I can imagine they wouldn't be in a jetlagged state.
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I noticed a lot of these beggars on the Metro in my two days in Paris this year. Just out for a buck. The music can be good sometime, but just ignore them on approach as you're better off!
Nice pix of the Bastille! Visited there a number of years ago. I think in 1998. Some good ones in Place de Vosges as well. Great area of Paris here in the Marais! (Arr. 3) . Such a pretty area. Sort of equivalent in NYC to Greenwich Village or Covent Garden in London to an extent.
It certainly has some similarities to Covent Garden. I haven't made it to Greenwich Village yet... maybe one day.
Thursday 5 December – part four: I wasn’t intending to visit this…
The entrance to Place des Vosges was impressive, but it also cleverly hid the square away, so you didn’t get to see the full splendour of it until you were pretty much on top of it, but I liked that, as it left it as a surprise until the last minute.
As you might remember from my pre-trip report, this square is considered amongst the most beautiful in the world. It’s got a total of 36 houses around it, nine on each side and they are beautiful. They date back around 400 years and as a result, they’ve seen many historic events over the years. There was a three day tournament held here to celebrate the marriage of Louis XIII to Anne of Austria in 1615 and it’s also been home to famous people over the years, including Cardinal Richelieu and writer Victor Hugo.
We walked over to see the statue in the middle of the square of Louis XIII.
Even though the fountains weren’t working for obvious reasons and the trees were lacking leaves, it still had a real charm to it and it looked beautiful in the winter light.
Once we had finished taking photos, we headed back the way we had come and back along the main road.
We came next to the Hotel de Sully, which we found completely by accident, as it wasn’t a place I was planning to visit. It dates back to the 17th century and has undergone extensive restoration to bring it back to how it used to look.
Mark decided to do a silly photo op!
It was a lovely place and had a lot of character to it. I was so pleased that we found this place.
We found that the back of the Hotel de Sully actually opened out on to Place des Vosges that we had just come out of.
Just beautiful. That kind of history fascinates me. Nothing quite like that here in the US. And this photo:
Classic. It's like something out of a picture book.
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Paris is such a beautiful city. You are so fortunate to live so close and be able to visit easily. We've been there twice, most recently in September, but would love to return some day.
Paris is such a beautiful city. You are so fortunate to live so close and be able to visit easily. We've been there twice, most recently in September, but would love to return some day.
We are very lucky with where we live - we have so many countries we can visit for a day or a weekend, with a major airport 35 minutes away with direct flights all over Europe and beyond. I know how much of a blessing that is, having seen the hub and spoke system in the States.
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Place des Vosges is beautiful even in the winter. I have to agree with Laurie that I find the symmetry of it visually appealing as well as calming. It would be such a treat to live here and look at the square in all season. Hotel de Sully was also beautiful. I sometimes wonder what the original architects and builders would think about their work all these years later. I'm one who is glad they have been preserved and restored.
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. I think once people realize how Paris is organized spiraling out from the center, it is a pretty easy city to get around....so long as the metro isn't on strike! (At least they announce their planned strikes so people can attempt to plan accordingly)
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I made the right choice! 
I've been to both the ticket office and used the machines and I found the machines easier to use, but I can imagine they wouldn't be in a jetlagged state. 
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